New York Style Pizza – Attempt 1

I’ve been wanting to branch out and try my hand at making other kinds of pizza lately. My biggest problem is that I don’t plan ahead well, and a lot of doughs take time to prepare. Not something you can come home from work and whip up. Now there’s nothing wrong with buying store bought dough when in a pinch (or from a local place) or using a bread machine dough (I do both all the time), but there are other types of pizza I’ve been wanting to try, one of them being New York style. I decided to go with the recipe on the Serious Eats website for my first attempt.

I made the dough the day prior after work so that it would have time for a cold fermenting in the fridge for 24 hours. Interestingly enough, their recipe calls for making the dough in a food processor.

A first for me…making dough with a food processor.

The next day, I took the dough out of the fridge and allowed it to warm up for two hours in the oven with the light on. Dough was a little stickier to work with at first than what I’ve been used to, but with a bit of flour it became easier. Kept the sauce light, went with fresh grated mozz, a bit of Asiago, some parm-regg and just a sprinkle of cheddar and then topped it with pepperoni. Figured I would keep it simple as I was focusing on the dough, not the toppings.

Onto the Egg at 500F

The recipe had it going for 12-15 minutes at 500F. This is about halfway through. I didn’t like how the crust was coming along, so I brushed it with some olive oil with some garlic powder mixed in.

Halfway through

After 15 minutes, I went ahead and pulled the pie. Wasn’t quite happy with the top, but was afraid the bottom was going to get burned, so I brought it inside and popped it under the broiler for a minute of two. Hope you don’t consider that cheating, I call it being smart.

Done

You can’t just judge a pizza by how it looks on the top, you have to take a peak at the crust, too.

Crust came out a beautiful color

And finally, the mandatory side view of the pizza.

Mine

Not quite what it looked like on The Serious Eats site.

Theirs

Wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but getting closer. And some of that is my fault. I didn’t read the recipe carefully and when I went to make the dough, I saw that it called for bread flour. All I had was All Purpose flour. Didn’t feel like a trip to the store, so I thought, “What the hay?” That probably made the most difference.

Second, at this I’m not sure on, the recipe calls for Instant Yeast. What I had was Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise Yeast. I really don’t know if they are the same, but when I looked in the store nothing said Instant Yeast. So I don’t know if that was a factor or not.

Third, the recipe says it will make 3 12-14″ pies. I generally make my pies in the 12″ range (as that’s how big my pizza pan is which I carry it on out to the Egg). I thought the dough was a little bit on the thick side when I stretched it out to 12″. Maybe if I had stretched it out more so that it was thinner, but then would it have fit on the Egg? I think I’m gonna cut some of the dough out of the next ball and try to get it thinner.

I still have two dough balls to play with, so I think I’m gonna experiment and see how a 3 day fermenting process works out (and a 5 day after that). I think I’m on the right track and next time for sure I’m going to make sure to use bread flour. Half the fun in making pizzas is trying over and over again to get that perfect one, right?😉

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6 thoughts on “New York Style Pizza – Attempt 1”

That’s a fine looking pie! I’ve been experimenting with doughs and temperatures for years. It’s not easy. My preferred recipe for dough uses bread flour and there is some science behind it. Buy a 5 lb. bag of King Arthur Bread Flour and I think you’ll notice some difference. (Still, AP flour is acceptable.) It appears that you made the pizza on a metal pan. While pans aren’t a bad thing, I think you might get what you are looking for from using a stone. There are stones out there suitable for the Egg. All of that aside … that’s a helluva first attempt! I’d say you were quite successful.

Thanks, Adam. Yeah, I’m going to buy breaed flour for the next batch. Do you think King Arthur is really all that great, or will any bread flour work? I’ve seen it around the internet and on blogs and stuff. People seem to think highly of it. My store is finally carrying it, so I’ll get some.

And no, it was not cooked on a metal pan. I cooked it on my Big Green Egg pizza stone that had been pre-warming for at least 45 minutes at 500F. I use the pan just to carry it to and from the Egg since I don’t have a pizza peel. I also use a piece of parchment paper under the ‘za so that it won’t stick. Just slide it right on to the stone and after a few minutes, the paper will slide right out from under it.

I like this dough much better than the one I’ve made prior using a bread machine. I’ll work on it some more, as well as some other crusts I want to try. Don’t tell anybody, but I actually made this last week. Wasn’t going to post, but I figured, “What the hay?”😉